A great multiplayer first person shooter, not so great single player.

Timesplitters was one of the most hyped launch titles for the PS2. people said that this would be the Goldeneye of the PS2 and quite possibly its best game at launch. First person shooters are generally very popular, but the Playstation had very few good ones. the only ones that come to mind are the two Medal of Honors. So it was interesting to see what kind of a game Timesplitters would turn out to be. Before saying anything about the game, let me warn you. This game is heavy on the multiplayer side. Even the single player mode is in essence a tool to unlock all the multiplayer stuff. Saying that, I must say that the game impressed me greatly. I am not the biggest FPS fan, but this game was a lot of fun to play. The action is fast and furious and gets your adrenalin pumping real high. There are lots of weapons and characters to choose from and you can play in a large number of levels including your created ones. The main single player mode is called story mode. In this mode you just play a bunch of levels in random eras and locations. Your main objective is to grab something from one part of the level and bring it back to another. Along the way you'll have to take out various enemies. Once you get the required items, time demons start popping out and they start attacking you trying to prevent you from completing the level. Its nothing complicated but is actually a lot of fun. Each era has its own set of weapons to use. For example a level in the year 1930 will have old fashioned weapons while a level in the year 2035 will have futuristic Star Wars like weapons. Once you beat the levels you unlock various things like characters, levels and bots to use in the multiplayer mode. Another cool thing about this mode is that you can play the story mode with another player. You can have a co-operative story mode. You can't unlock anything this way, but it still is cool to go through a level with a friend. The main part of this game is the multiplayer mode. You can see the influences of games such as Goldeneye in this mode. A lot of the features found in Goldeneye are available here and more. There are a large number of characters, weapons, levels and bots to choose from. You can pick from preset weapon choices or bot choices or customize your own. The availability of bots even make it possible for you to play the multiplayer mode with only one human player. At a time you can have up to 10 bots and 4 human players and so the action can get really fast paced. The great thing is that the game tracks every players statistics and saves them. It even saves your career statistics so you can see what you have done since you started the game. There are lots of different stats tracked such as total time played, number of kills, miles travelled and lots more. There is also a challenge mode in this game where you get specific mission objectives and you have to complete them in the allocated time. There is also a cool level editor where you can design your own multiplayer level and then play your games in it. Overall this is a very good title for the PS2 and one fo the best FPS games ever.

Graphics: 8. The surroundings and levels aren't that impressive, and neither are the deformed looking characters or enemies, but the thing that really impressed me are the various effects, such are breaking a glass window at the exact spot you shoot and watching the enemy animations. Unlike Goldeneye, when an opponent crouches and moves, you can see its feet moving instead of the character just sliding along.

Sound: 7. The sound effects are pretty good. It really gets intense when there are a lot of people on the screen and the gunfire gets real loud. The music is kind of cheesy, but acceptable.

Gameplay: 9. This is the most fun I have ever had in a FPS. like I said I don't really like these kind of games that much, but Timesplitters is an exception. The default controls are a little awkward, but you can change them to whatever you like. The only catch is that you have to use both joy sticks.

Replay Value: 10. It is a multiplayer heavy game so the replay value is obviously high. Also there is a lot of stuff to be unlocked, so there is tons of replayability there.

Overall: 8. This is in my opinion the best console FPS ever made. I like the fast paced and intense action of Timesplitter a little better than the methodical and sometimes boring action of Goldeneye.